Hi Hans-Erik,

Good to see Jasmine sailing out of harbour with her junk rig,

I'am sure you will have good time with her sailing around SA and more.

Fair winds !

She was ready before I was legal.
I needed to secure a skippers ticket to sail my beautiful girl alone.
That ticket arrived on Monday from SA Sailing.

Video of my first solo sail on Junk Jasmine.

Hans-Erik and Arne, thank you both for your fast and constructive replies.
I must say I already agreed on your opinions, even before reading them. My intention was to try HK parrels, because it is a very simple modification that is fast, cheap and non-destructive.
As you say, Arne, if it works, it is success. If it don't work, it's experience. As for bending battens, I am quite confident that the battens on Paradox are strong enough.
Hans-Erik, tying anything around my yards or battens is not an easy thing to achieve. The sail panels on Paradox are all independent (separated pieces of cloth), and they are equipped with bolt ropes on their upper and lower edges, these bolt ropes being slid into rails affixed on top and bottom of each batten, and on the bottom side of the yard. So the battens join the panels together to form the complete sail. hope I am clear in my explanation.
So to tie for example a strap around the yard, I would need to cut away a piece of the rail, after having removed the panel, then slide the panel back in the rail, hoping the piece of rail I remove will not affect the strength of the whole assembly.
But as always, other solutions can be found.
I'll keep you informed!
Fair winds to you,
Patrick

Hi Patrick,

First off thank you for your kind words and my belated congratulations on your marriage to Paradox.

As to those pesky diagonal creases on your Paradox's sails:
It is my understanding that they are caused by the downward force of the sheets/sheetlets at the leech batten end fighting the upward pull at the luff end of the battens above in each panel.
The Hong Kong(HK) parrels, set at around a 45° angle from the luff batten ends to roughly the aft attachment point of the batten parrel on the batten below, counter that downward force at the sheets/sheetlets.
They are standing lines once set correctly and need not be of super strong (expensive) rope material as it's not a train smash if they should snap/break.
I was pleased to see that they do indeed take out the camber robbing big diagonal creases. It was in Arne Kverneland's writings that I learned of their value in barrel cut panels. (I have not yet been out sailing and imagine some length tweaking will follow after doing so.)
Get some inexpensive low 6-8mm diameter line and give them a try on Paradox.

As to the idea of moving the halyard attachment point further back:
I intend to attach my yard hauling parrel(YHP) aft of the halyard attachment point as Jasmine's mast is of a length that there is almost no drift when the sail is fully hoisted.
The YHP is redundant when the sail is fully hoisted but, as I am sure you know, is vital in keeping the sail well peaked up as soon as one drops a panel or more. Having the YHP attached aft of the halyard attachment point is something that Arne too has done on his Ingeborg.
Initially you could use an all stainless hose clamp (it will eventually rust/discolour but is easily replaced) to make a temporary or even a permanent attachment for the YHP. They are not expensive and will clamp on 2 loops of strong line (dyneema would be optimum and not much is needed) into which the bitter end can be tied and a shackle will fix the YHP block.

I have attached a couple of pictures of such a clamp attachment system that Arne used for the aft end of his batten parrels and HK parrels.
Ingeborg's YHP is the green line in the picture of the yard attachments.
I went with his idea of wrapping some sportsman's tape around under the hose clamps on the aluminium battens and will do so on Jasmine's single 80mm diameter aluminium tube yard to help with anti-slip and create a barrier between the stainless steel and the aluminium.

I hope my thoughts help you and as always, fair winds fellow junkie. :-)

Hans Erik, too bad you live in such a faraway country. Seing your Jasmine among our european junks would be such a honour for us!
You certainly can be proud of your boat. It looks really great!
During the Semaine du Golfe event in Morbihan, other junkists kindly made fun of me because the cambered panels on Paradox were showing those big disgraceful diagonal creases. I talked about fitting honk-kong parrels, but didn't meet a lot of enthusiasm.
Instead it was suggested I should try and move the halyard lifting point further aft of the yard. Kind of difficult for me since the yards are aluminium and that would mean making holes, fitting strong attachments for the halyard, yet I'm not totally sure it would solve the problem.
Are you satisfied with your Honk-Kong parrels? Any pros and cons? It would be intersting to have your feedback.
Meanwhile, congratulation for Jasmine, and good luck for the remaining jobs!
Patrick (ex China Blue, now Paradox of Plym)